Life is Strange: True Colours presents protagonist Alex Chen, and therefore the player, with two romance options: Steph or Ryan. There’s no right or wrong choice of course, but, come on, we’re all picking Steph, right? She’s the cool local DJ opening up the world for Alex, the manic pixie dream game master, while Ryan spends a good chunk of the game needing to be cheered up, cut the rope to let Alex’s brother Gabe fall to his death, his dad killed Alex’s father, and his job is to take people hunting to murder animals. Hardly a Sophie’s Choice situation. But for me, True Colours was a love story, just not with a person. I fell in love with the location: the fictional town of Haven Springs.
I say town. Really, I fell in love with a street. True Colours is a smaller, more intimate game than previous entries in the series. The scope of the story is smaller, as is the location. The bulk of the game is set on one road with a handful of interior locations leading off it. And it’s beautiful. Stunning buildings against the backdrop of a gorgeous lake and river. The location is key to the events and ideas in the story, presenting Haven as a perfect and inclusive place that the player instantly wants to protect against Typhon, a mining company. An idyllic town with something dark and sinister (literally) beneath the surface, in a David Lynch style. Each chapter I spent as long as I could just walking down the street, interacting with everyone and everything possible, with continuing the narrative being the least of my concerns.
Haven Springs is a utopia, quite literally matching the definition of that word. It’s a perfect place that can only exist in a story, being impractical and unsustainable. I mean, an ice cream parlour, a vinyl records store, a florist, and a cannabis dispensary all successfully operating on a high street in a tiny Colorado town? An indie movie theatre? Alex living rent free in a great apartment above a bar with a stunning roof garden overlooking the lake? Haven would be bankrupt in a day. But who cares? It’s an encapsulation of perfection for Alex specifically, a tailor-made home used as a tool in the narrative to explore her as a character. The town plays its role exquisitely and I love every detail on its three-lane concourse that would make for the gayest Call of Duty map ever.
Home has been a key theme for each instalment of Life is Strange so far. The first game very much played with the old Thomas Wolfe idea of ‘you can’t go home again’. Max returned to her childhood hometown but found she couldn’t just resume her old life for she and everyone else had changed, culminating in either the death of her best friend or the destruction of the town itself. Before the Storm had Chloe and Amber feel trapped in their hometown, desperate to leave but unable to escape its traumatic orbit. Life is Strange 2 saw brother’s Sean and Daniel uprooted from their home and embark on a road trip to their father’s old home in Mexico, perhaps finding the true meaning of the word on the way and whether the US or Mexico best encapsulates it for them.
True Colours is far and away the most positive examination of the idea of home. Alex has spent years in foster homes and couch-surfing and now finally finds a home at Haven and has to do everything in her power(s) to hold onto it. In perhaps the game’s most unsubtle moment, when Alex arrives in Haven Springs you can stop on the bridge and gaze across the new landscape as Home by Gabrielle Aplin plays. I usually prefer the darker, more dramatic endings (Chloe must die, Daniel and Sean torn apart) but with True Colours I was aiming for the happiest ending possible. The positive vibes of Haven were too strong to resist.
The game’s fifth and final chapter begins much like the first, with Alex back at Helping Hands foster home being interviewed by Dr Lynn about her time at Haven Springs. The idea that Alex would be forced to leave Haven to return to her old life is truly heartbreaking. It’s the moment in the game that put into perspective just how attached I had become to the town and Alex’s life there. Thankfully the scene is revealed to be a dream as Alex battles her way through an old mine back to the safety of Haven in a very Campbellian series of events, but it cemented the idea that whatever happens in the rest of the game my goal was to make sure Alex remained in Haven.
For much of the game the romance choice between Ryan and Steph seemed to be the major decision everything was building to. However the romance is confirmed in the penultimate chapter of True Colours, leaving the big choice at the end to be whether Alex remains in Haven Springs or leaves with Steph as a touring musician. It’s the easiest choice I’ve ever made in a Life is Strange game. I decided to stay, finally giving Alex a place she belongs, and Steph stayed with her. Even if the choice was between Steph or Haven it would be Haven every time. I’m shocked that the statistics at the end of the game revealed that only 56% of players chose to stay in the town. 44% of you are insane. Haven Springs is one of my favourite locations from any video game.
